🪴 Random encounters don't need to be rolled

The word "random" in random encounter does double duty. It describes the fact that it can be randomly determined if an encounter happens at all, as well as which one happens in particular – if one happens.

🌱 Random encounters are (part of) the cost players pay for exploration and 🌱 Skipping random encounters means exploration was free, but 🌱 Random encounters might be at odds with maintaining pace.

One way to mitigate this is to randomly determine if an encounter happens, but choosing which one.

This can be combined with or act as an alternative to 🌱 Allow players to opt-in or out of random encounters and 🌱 Telegraph the nature of random encounters to let players decide how to engage with them.

Links

Concepts

Random Encounters, Randomness, Railroading, Random Tables, Resource Management, Pacing